Banks withdraw from Barclays' dark pool: FT

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Raindrops are seen on the logo of a rental bicycle sponsored by Barclays in London May 8, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

(Reuters) - Big banks have started pulling their business out of Barclays’ (BARC.L) dark pool, after the British bank was sued by New York’s top securities regulator for allegedly misleading institutional investors over its anonymous trading venue, The Financial times reported.

Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Credit Suisse CSGN.VX and Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), asset manager Alliance Bernstein were among the institutions that withdrew from Barclays’ dark pool on Thursday, the paper said. (on.ft.com/1liYksA)

Barclays said any drop in trading volumes at LX might be due to a technical glitch.

The New York State attorney general’s lawsuit alleges that Barclays promised to get the best possible prices for customers looking to buy or sell shares but instead took steps that maximized the bank’s profits and executed nearly all of its customers’ stock orders on LX instead of on exchanges or other venues that might have offered better prices.

Dark pools were created to allow investors to execute big trades without tipping off the market. But ever-larger volumes of trades have been shunted into dark pools and critics say their opacity makes markets less fair for other investors.

Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse declined to comment. Royal Bank of Canada, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase could not immediately be reached for comment.